Literary notes about decidedly (AI summary)
The adverb "decidedly" is employed in literature to underscore certainty and add emphasis, often coloring descriptions and opinions with a strong, unambiguous tone. It can accentuate physical characteristics, as when a character is noted to be "decidedly small in circumference" [1] or to have "decidedly untidy" hair [2]. At other times, it conveys a character's firm sentiment or judgment, such as when someone speaks "decidedly" in a conversation [3, 4] or when an author asserts an unequivocal opinion [5, 6]. The word’s versatility is further revealed as it marks contrasts or shifts in narrative mood, highlighting the distinctiveness or unexpected nature of a situation [7, 8]. Overall, "decidedly" serves as a literary device that injects clarity and resoluteness into the text, reinforcing the narrator's present and the writer’s intended emphasis.
- Oliver Twist's ninth birthday found him a pale thin child, somewhat diminutive in stature, and decidedly small in circumference.
— from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - She wore a faded old wrapper, and her gray hair was decidedly untidy.
— from Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery - I told Mother I'd do the errands, and I haven't," said Jo decidedly.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - "For the better or the worse?" "The better, decidedly." "Thank you, I hoped so; but one never knows how one seems to other people.
— from Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott - Our own opinion is decidedly in favor of this supposition.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - His discourse was the first decidedly anti-slavery lecture to which it had been my lot to listen.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass - The situation was entirely unforeseen and decidedly embarrassing, but she never turned back, never allowed any earthly obstacle to stand in her way.
— from The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) by Ida Husted Harper - There was so much virtue in this distinctly and decidedly meaning to have it, that it yielded a little, even while the line was played.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
